4 Basic Tips for SEO Beginners
With more than 1 billion websites online today, the competition to land on the top page of Google can be tough. If you want people to find your website, investing time on your website’s SEO is a must-do task. Which is why we compiled 4 basic tips for SEO success below!
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the set of actions you can take to help your website rank higher in searches on Google and other search engines. These actions can include placing relevant keywords in your website’s text, giving your web pages a title and description, and much more. Why does this matter? Because showing up higher in search engine results means more people will find your website, learn about your business, buy your products, or use your services. In other words, it can be the deciding factor between running a thriving business, or one that’s, well, bankrupt.
SEO Tip #1: Optimization for Local Search
Create a “Google My Business” page (for free) with your address, phone number, hours of operation, and company information listed on it. This allows your company to control what Google shows users in search results and makes finding the location of your company in Google maps easier. You’re also able to respond to customer reviews, post photos, and gain insight into how people search for your business through Google.
SEO Tip #2: Create Keyword-Rich Blog Posts
Search algorithms are designed to imitate how humans interact with search engines in order to find what they are looking for online. By regularly posting new content to your company website, Google bots will crawl and index it more often. Fresh content ranks higher in search engines and higher-ranking content yields more views, so it’s best to start utilizing your site’s blog by publishing relevant industry information your consumers are looking to find.
SEO Tip #3: Image Optimization
An alt tag is used so those who are visually impaired know what the image is for. Including alt tags on images is another easy way for you to potentially boost your site’s ranking position. Photos with alt tags are more likely to show up in image-based search engines, like Google images, and is a good source for receiving more organic traffic to your website.
SEO Tip #4: Interlinking Pages and Authoritative Backlinks
Interlinking is used to provide users with easy navigation and encourage them to explore further into your website. As you can see in this blog post, I have linked the term “shop” to our products page where you can purchase items to support small businesses. If this were a blog post about how you can get involved in supporting small businesses, I would link to our collaboration page. (See what I did there?)
Backlinks are also powerful in terms of SEO as it improves the credibility of your site. A backlink is a link created when one website links to another. In short, backlinks to your website are a signal to search engines that others vouch for your content. If multiple sites link to the same web page or site, search engines can then infer that content is worth linking to and will positively affect your site’s ranking position and search visibility.
